The Babylonians has used a character for the absence of number, and they made use of a primitive kind of place value, but they did not create a system of numeration in which the zero played any such part as it does in the which now use.
Zero was the last cog in the system to exist, invented more than 300 years after the rest of the Arabic number system was in use.
Hindu system emerged around 600 AD and the earliest known zero is found inscribed on the wall of temple in central India dated 870 AD.
By 800 AD, news of this system came to Baghdad. In the spring of 810 AD in Baghdad a great debate raged inside the Caliph’s chambers. Three men took part in the debate: the Caliph, Al-Khwarizmi and the palace mathematician, Ahmad ibn Aziz.
They argue about sifr, the empty place or zero. Al-Khwarizmi explained the decimal place value system and the concept of zero.
At the end of two days of questioning by the Caliph and by Aziz, Al-Khwarizmi had convinced the Caliph who declared that sifr was a true number.
Leonardo of Pisa, travelled throughout the Mediterranean and the Middle East, where he first heard of the new system and later published the Book of Computation in 1202.
History and invention of zero
